An intellectual rebellion sweeps through the Establishment's think tank

The University of Stellenbosch is the oldest Afrikaans-language university in South Africa and by far the most prestigious. Six of the country's eight Prime Ministers were graduates. One of them, Daniel Malan, was a university chancellor and another, Hendrik F. Verwoerd, the architect of apartheid, was a professor in the sociology department. The university's present chancellor is State President P.W. Botha, though he did not attend Stellenbosch.

Since 1948, when the Afrikaner-dominated National Party came to power, Stellenbosch has been the government's think tank. Its academic stars have provided the theoretical framework for apartheid, philosophical defenses for social engineering and, more...